VIDEO: Flying over Mackay in a war time plane

MACKAY is home to two of the last remaining war-time Tiger Moth planes that were initially created as training aircraft's for World War Two.

There are about 150 left in Australia, however, not all are in flying condition.

Mackay Aero Club president and pilot Greg Christensen said both Mackay Tiger Moth's are about 74 years old, and will easily fly until they're older than 100.

"We started the club about 40 years ago now so that people could see what it was like to fly in the old days,” Mr Christensen said.

"They work the exact same way as they used to, the only difference is they have a radio now.

"We'll keep flying them as long as we can, they'll outlive us for sure, after that they'll just be used for static display.”

Mr Christensen said the planes were first built to be used for training exercises, as part of the British Empire Training scheme.

The view of Mackay from an old war time Tiger Moth:
The view of Mackay from an old war time Tiger Moth plane.

"When the war was in Europe or was going to happen there, they needed a whole lot of pilots and aeroplanes to supply so the British Empire decided to introduce the training scheme.

"We were part of it at the time so we would train pilots for Europe and that's what these planes were built for.

"We built just over 1000 in Australia from Sydney and Melbourne, and they were our first export aeroplane, we don't have many left.”

Originally the planes were painted in bright yellow, as one of the Tiger Moth's is now decorated, so they could be seen clearly while training in the air.

"You might have 80 Tigers in a school and there was about 15 satellite schools in Australia flying at the time,” Mr Christensen said.

"The red and white Tiger Moth we have was in a training school in Western Australia and it ended up being on the front line in New Guinea, looking for pilots that had been shot down and trying to send them home.

"It kept a classic war time look, as opposed to the bright yellow, as it was sneaking around the trees nice and low and needed to be better camouflaged as the enemy would often try and shoot the training schools down.”